Salutations Elyrians,

Though we stand on the verge of the ducal pick time, I come bearing news. Due to a variety of internal and external factors, the start of the ducal pick period is being delayed by one week. Dukes and duchesses will begin to pick their domains on the 13th of May, rather than the 6th of May. This means that counts and mayors will also begin their process a week later than originally planned. However, independent of your start date, your pick window will be at the same time of day. Likewise, any effort you've made to push your pick time forward is still valid and preserved. Though you will start a week later, your position relative to other members of your peer group will remain the same.

As I'm sure you can imagine, this is not a decision we've come to lightly. Those following along are probably already aware of some of the challenges that we've faced as the Domain and Settlement Selection process began and moved through its first week: we've dealt with technical challenges from the terabytes of data that represent the maps, online attacks against the site itself meant to interfere with your ability to choose your domains, and unexpected, although exciting developments within the server communities. Moving through the week we've rolled with the punches, putting more powerful hardware into the map preparation processes, fighting the DDoS attacks, and counseling monarchs and others affected by the kingdom picks. However, despite our best efforts, they simply weren't enough to keep the process on track.

In theory, we could open the site later this week, but we would be doing so knowing there is little time to comprehensively test the integration of the myriad elements that are still coming together even today. And we would be robbing the monarchs the time they need to pick their own crown duchies while, at the same time, giving the dukes and duchesses of Elyria a shorter time frame to make their own picks. It's better, we believe, to to take the extra care necessary to ensure we can test everything thoroughly, even at the cost of delaying something we know you're all hotly anticipating. You deserve the best possible experience, so we're asking for your patience as we take the time necessary to roll out a selection process that is as feature & information rich and as stable as you need it to be. We must commit to "quality first," even when it forces us to miss a date we've already publicized.

So, effective immediately, the start date for the ducal pick window will now be May 13th, 2019, causing each subsequent phase to be pushed back by 1 week. We will not be altering the pick orders, and pick times will still be at the same time of day, just one week later. We understand that many of you have altered plans to be ready for your pick time, and this delay affects those plans. We will make it up to you. First, by delivering you a quality selection experience. Second, by giving all players who are participating in Domain and Settlement Selection a small gift, to be found in your inventory after Domain and Settlement Selection ends, along with the in-game title "The Patient" for you to use on your character.

As a final note: This decision will also delay the start of our annual Kickstarterversary event. We feel it is extremely important that the Domain and Settlement Selection process resumes and the maps of your Elyria are in your hands before a new event or promotion begins.

Thank you for your time, and your understanding,

Vye and the Soulbound Studios team